So on Saturday, one of my colleagues who lives in Seoul offered to show me around a little bit. While some of the other EPIK teachers had already planned to go into Seoul on Saturday, I decided to go with my colleage, Ms. Kim, because I thought she'd know of some better places to take me!
So I met her at Bugae station, which is where my school is, at 1:00, and it took us about an hour to get into Seoul because we couldn't catch the express train for some reason. The train just kept getting more and more crowded the closer we got to Seoul, and by the end of it, I was ready as all hell to get out and explore.
Our first stop was Samesung station (sp), which is where Coex Mall is. Apparently it's one the nicest and biggest in Seoul, but it pales in comparison to Siam Paragon in Bangkok. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in it. I mean, it was nice, it just wanted anything to ride home about...Anyways, we walked around the area for awhile, and talked a lot about Korea and its relationship to (North) Korea. It was very interesting to hear a South Korean's perspective on this issue. To her, there is no issue, and it's basically just fabricated by the press.
We then travel to the National Museum of Korea, and again, I'm a little let-down. It just seemed to be lacking SOMETHING that thailand didn't. I feel like I need to go into Seoul on my own and see the things that I want to see in order for me to have a better understanding of this city. I was impressed by the subway system though, haha. There are 9 lines, and you can get to basically anywhere. And it's extremely cheap...
Then, on Sunday, a girl named Natalie from CT, Stephen and I decided to head into Chinatown and explore that area a bit. Chinatown is located at the end of the Incheon Line 1, and it only took us like 20 minutes to get to. It was pretty sweet though. The moment you walk through the "paeru" or "gate", it feels like you're walking in China (hence Chinatown, hah. wow....) We grabbed some traditional black noodles which were delicious, and just walked around the streets. We saw Confucious too, which was pretty sweet.
We then decided to head to Wolmido, an area by the sea. There's an amusement park and boardwalk there. The rides looked a little old, but definitely fun, hah. AND you guys won't ever believe this. There was this "ride" there that like catapults you into the air and you do like flips and shit like a hundred feet in the air. And guess who did it?!? Stephen and I. It was by the far one of the best things I've done in a long time. It was so exhilarating and I about pissed my pants when we were first launched into the air. But the views we got were incredible and frightening at the same time. It also felt like we were free-falling multiple times, which I'm guessing is what bungee jumping feels like. That's the next thing on my list to do while in Korea, hah.
All-in-all, the weekend was a success. Got to travel into Seoul, explored Chinatown, and did something I never thought I'd do! Wow.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
FRESH food!
So as I was walking to Bugae Station to catch the subway to Bupyeong, I got a whiff of the freshest smelling fish ever. Bugae isn't the nicest of areas in Incheon, and it certainly isn't even close the sea, but the food here on the streets is so incredibly fresh it's ridiculous! Honestly, I didn't even see the fish, I just smelt it as I walked by, and I stopped dead in my tracks and then found the fish in "tanks" or open-aired bowls. It's amazing, and one of these days I'll get up the courage and actually buy/eat one, haha.
Regarding street food--it's not as common as it is in Bangkok, and therefore I haven't really tried any yet, hah. I'm a little nervous to go up to one of the stands, just point to something that I really don't know what it is, and then figure out how much it is to pay for. The language barrier here is also a lot higher here :( It's very, very strange, and it deserves its own post, hah.
Okay, that's it. Just wanted to entice you guys to come visit me because not only will you make my week by doing so, you can also enjoy the freshest seafood EVER! I'm off to Seoul today with a co-worker, Ms Kim. She apparently lives in Seoul, so she will hopefully show me all the good spots today :) I love you all, and miss you guys so much. Hope you all have a great Friday night!
Regarding street food--it's not as common as it is in Bangkok, and therefore I haven't really tried any yet, hah. I'm a little nervous to go up to one of the stands, just point to something that I really don't know what it is, and then figure out how much it is to pay for. The language barrier here is also a lot higher here :( It's very, very strange, and it deserves its own post, hah.
Okay, that's it. Just wanted to entice you guys to come visit me because not only will you make my week by doing so, you can also enjoy the freshest seafood EVER! I'm off to Seoul today with a co-worker, Ms Kim. She apparently lives in Seoul, so she will hopefully show me all the good spots today :) I love you all, and miss you guys so much. Hope you all have a great Friday night!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Second day at school...
September 1, 2009
Co-taught with Christina, grade 4 in elementary school (11 years old [in Korean years, so really only 10 years old]).
Introduced myself using powerpoint. Kids seemed to really like me and showed lots of interest.
4 periods back to back from 9-12:10, so I did the same presentation 4 times in a row. Got repetitive, but it was fine I guess.
Christina is just getting back into teaching from maternity leave, and she told me she was very nervous about it, hah.
The students in the 4th grade class were much more rambonxious and wild than I remember being. There are about 30 students in each class, but Christina only had a handful the students’ attention. I kind of felt bad for her, and at times I wanted to get up from seat and get the students’ attention by clapping my hands or raising my voice to let them know to pay attention, but I didn’t want to step on Christina’s ground, so I just let her handle it the way she wants to. When I teach, I’ll be sure the students know that they can’t goof off like they when Christina is teaching. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be like some mean dictator up at the front of the classroom, but I’ll make sure the students are paying attention to me and not (a) falling asleep (b) talking to their neighbor or (c) drawing on the table. That’s just unacceptable, and I’ll let them know in a very kind, yet firm way, hah.
The school cafeteria is apparently still not finished, so one of Anne’s coworkers ordered in food for the rest of 5th grade teachers (Anne is a 5th grade teacher, so she (and therefore I) eat with them). They had ordered some bibimbap and some other soups, and it was all going fine until Ryan (the other guy who helped move me in when I first got into Incheon) to me that I “have to give him 4,500 won”. He told me this in front of the rest of the 5th grade teachers, and caught me really off guard and made me feel super awkward. Also, everything that I’ve read and even heard about at the EPIK orientation led me to believe that if I were eating out with my co-teacher/colleagues, they would ALWAYS pay for it because that’s Korean culture. WRONG! I didn’t know how to react to it. And then Ryan proceeded to ask me if I were rich. WTF? He also told me that 4500 won isn’t much for lunch, insinuating it wasn’t much for me. I did not appreciate any of his comments today at lunch. And this is after I gave him a Carolina Nike hat for helping me move in, when I was explicitly told that presents aren’t necessary. I’m starting to feel like my colleagues are trying to take advantage of me a little bit, so I have my guard up when I’m around them.
The afternoon is once again spent on my computer doing nothing really. I don’t have my own computer at school yet, which means if I want to use the internet at school, I have to share it with Anne. Apparently, I’m getting my own computer on Thursday, thank god. Anne said it won’t be new, so I wonder just how old it will be. It better not be some shitty, slow computer.
We are allowed to leave the school at 4:40 every day, so Anne and I left then to go to shopping with the government’s money! Yay! The government has given every co-teacher 2 million won to spend on their guest English teachers in order to help us settle into our new apartments. Anne had apparently spent only half of it already, so we have about 1 million won to spend on “apartment things.” We head to a furniture store, a buy a red dresser/coffee table type of thing, and then a new flat-screen 29 in TV. That cost about 350,000 won. We then head over to Lotte Mart to buy some other things, and by the end of the day, I still have around 150,000 won to spend. So I have to think of what else I want for my apartment, because I don’t want that money to go to waste! I still need to get curtains because the ones I wanted were out of stock, and the only other ones were god-ugly. We bought a fan, but I can’t figure out how to assemble it, so it’s currently just sitting in parts in a corner of my apartment. Woops. You guys know how I am with putting things together…
Head out to dinner with Stephen and a girl named Sophia from Texas. We go to a restaurant called “Party”. I’m sure we’ll go back there soon, and I’ll be sure to take pictures next time. We all had the “pasta set”, and it wasn’t bad at all. Nice surprise for sure. And the total bill for all three of us was like 18,000 won, which is like $15. It was insane because it was a pretty nice restaurant…I guess that’s Asia for you.
I then head to a PC Bang to check email/facebook, catch up with some people, thank god, and then head back home around 10 or so. I’m not tired, so I actually cook for myself! And I took pictures of I what I cooked. I was so impressed with myself, haha. I made eggs and toast! And it was yummy. I then put on some “How I Met Your Mother”, hopped into bed, and eventually fell asleep.
Co-taught with Christina, grade 4 in elementary school (11 years old [in Korean years, so really only 10 years old]).
Introduced myself using powerpoint. Kids seemed to really like me and showed lots of interest.
4 periods back to back from 9-12:10, so I did the same presentation 4 times in a row. Got repetitive, but it was fine I guess.
Christina is just getting back into teaching from maternity leave, and she told me she was very nervous about it, hah.
The students in the 4th grade class were much more rambonxious and wild than I remember being. There are about 30 students in each class, but Christina only had a handful the students’ attention. I kind of felt bad for her, and at times I wanted to get up from seat and get the students’ attention by clapping my hands or raising my voice to let them know to pay attention, but I didn’t want to step on Christina’s ground, so I just let her handle it the way she wants to. When I teach, I’ll be sure the students know that they can’t goof off like they when Christina is teaching. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to be like some mean dictator up at the front of the classroom, but I’ll make sure the students are paying attention to me and not (a) falling asleep (b) talking to their neighbor or (c) drawing on the table. That’s just unacceptable, and I’ll let them know in a very kind, yet firm way, hah.
The school cafeteria is apparently still not finished, so one of Anne’s coworkers ordered in food for the rest of 5th grade teachers (Anne is a 5th grade teacher, so she (and therefore I) eat with them). They had ordered some bibimbap and some other soups, and it was all going fine until Ryan (the other guy who helped move me in when I first got into Incheon) to me that I “have to give him 4,500 won”. He told me this in front of the rest of the 5th grade teachers, and caught me really off guard and made me feel super awkward. Also, everything that I’ve read and even heard about at the EPIK orientation led me to believe that if I were eating out with my co-teacher/colleagues, they would ALWAYS pay for it because that’s Korean culture. WRONG! I didn’t know how to react to it. And then Ryan proceeded to ask me if I were rich. WTF? He also told me that 4500 won isn’t much for lunch, insinuating it wasn’t much for me. I did not appreciate any of his comments today at lunch. And this is after I gave him a Carolina Nike hat for helping me move in, when I was explicitly told that presents aren’t necessary. I’m starting to feel like my colleagues are trying to take advantage of me a little bit, so I have my guard up when I’m around them.
The afternoon is once again spent on my computer doing nothing really. I don’t have my own computer at school yet, which means if I want to use the internet at school, I have to share it with Anne. Apparently, I’m getting my own computer on Thursday, thank god. Anne said it won’t be new, so I wonder just how old it will be. It better not be some shitty, slow computer.
We are allowed to leave the school at 4:40 every day, so Anne and I left then to go to shopping with the government’s money! Yay! The government has given every co-teacher 2 million won to spend on their guest English teachers in order to help us settle into our new apartments. Anne had apparently spent only half of it already, so we have about 1 million won to spend on “apartment things.” We head to a furniture store, a buy a red dresser/coffee table type of thing, and then a new flat-screen 29 in TV. That cost about 350,000 won. We then head over to Lotte Mart to buy some other things, and by the end of the day, I still have around 150,000 won to spend. So I have to think of what else I want for my apartment, because I don’t want that money to go to waste! I still need to get curtains because the ones I wanted were out of stock, and the only other ones were god-ugly. We bought a fan, but I can’t figure out how to assemble it, so it’s currently just sitting in parts in a corner of my apartment. Woops. You guys know how I am with putting things together…
Head out to dinner with Stephen and a girl named Sophia from Texas. We go to a restaurant called “Party”. I’m sure we’ll go back there soon, and I’ll be sure to take pictures next time. We all had the “pasta set”, and it wasn’t bad at all. Nice surprise for sure. And the total bill for all three of us was like 18,000 won, which is like $15. It was insane because it was a pretty nice restaurant…I guess that’s Asia for you.
I then head to a PC Bang to check email/facebook, catch up with some people, thank god, and then head back home around 10 or so. I’m not tired, so I actually cook for myself! And I took pictures of I what I cooked. I was so impressed with myself, haha. I made eggs and toast! And it was yummy. I then put on some “How I Met Your Mother”, hopped into bed, and eventually fell asleep.
First day in the classroom! this is what i travelled half-way across the world for!
First day in the classroom:
Monday August 31st:
I set my alarm for 6:30 am, knowing that I should be out the door by the latest 8 am. I don’t get out of bed until 6:45, then I stumble around for a bit. I forget that I have to turn on the water heater in order to have hot water in the shower, so I push that button as soon as I remembered that needed to be done, hah. I guess I always took having hot water for granted. Never again.
I take a shower in my Korean-style bathroom, shave (of course), then decided to wear just khakis and my carolina-blue dress shirt and red and blue tie. I definitely felt like I was dressing the part of a teacher. I gather everything together that I thought I’d need for the first day of class, head out of my apartment a little before 8, stop at 7-11 to grab my starbucks double-shot espresso, and then walk underground. The underground mall at bupyeong is literally just one huge maze, and I have absolutely no idea how people know where exactly they’re walking to. Luckily, I just have to follow signs that say “subway”, but of course I chose to turn at the wrong “subway” sign, hah. Instead of turning at the Seoul subway line, I turned at the Incheon one, and then I wonder around a bit and I realize I’m not in the spot I need to be at. I then ask one of the employees, “Seoul?”, and he points me in the right direction, thank god.
I wait for like 5 minutes before the train comes, I hop in with the hundreds of other Koreans heading to work, and just listen to my music. Luckily, my school is only one stop away, which translates into like a 3 minute subway ride. Not bad at all. I get off, head to the exit 1, and walk towards my school! Nerves are sky-high by now, because I have no idea what to expect. Of course, I get to school wayyy early (even earlier before my co-teacher got there), so I hang around outside. There, a bunch of Korean students are smiling at me and saying “hi, how are you”…I immediately fall in love with it. I give them all high-fives before heading upstairs to the English classroom to meet my co-teacher, Anne, who has finally arrived by like 8:50.
I meet my other co-teacher Christina (or I think that’s her name!). I think I got lucky having only two co-teachers, because I’ve heard of other people having like 6-8 co-teachers, which would make things much more complicated logistically. Christina’s English is just like Anne’s, very broken and basic, but we can at least communicate on a low-level. Communicating effectively and efficiently is going to be the hardest thing this year I think.
Anyways, Anne then tells me we have to go meet the principal, and I about shat my pants. We walked into his office, and stereotypically it was furnished in the nicest furniture and TVs and pictures. He gets up from his desk, doesn’t really smile at first, I bow and say “anyong ha-seyo”, bow again, and then he sticks out his hand to shake mine. We shake for a good 20 seconds, while just muttering broken Korean/English at each other and smiling. Very awkward moment, haha. Eventually, I think I broke the principal’s tough façade, because he finally starting smiling and laughing with me, and he tried out his English which was nice.
He then went on the school comm system which includes video to every classroom, and proceeded to award certain students for certain things (today was the first day of second semester for Koreans, so it was only a half-day for the students). After a lot of awards, I get a nudge from Anne saying it’s my turn. I walk into the room next to us, and find a fucking camera broadcasting everything to the whole school. I was not prepared for this to be video taped!! So after the principal says “Davis James Hunt” in his Korean accent, I step up to the podium and give my little welcome speech. I could see myself on the screen, and all I remember is me like smiling so much and thinking this can’t really be happening. It was a little surreal.
I somehow end after like 3 minutes of just spewing out words and thank you’s, and everyone is so happy with me. Remember, I’m the first native English teacher this school has had, so they don’t know what to expect from me either. However, I feel like I’m doing a really good job at representing myself, my family, and the US. I’ve made a huge concerted effort at making friends with all my colleagues and getting to know them and show them respect, and I think it’s already paying dividends. I’ve been invited to go into Seoul with Anne, and I think I have an invitation to go to some big temple in Seoul with one other English teacher and her husband.
Anyways, after my speech, Anne and I head back to our English room and we basically do nothing until lunch, no lie. I was invited to go out to lunch with Anne and the 4 other 5th grade teachers (Ryan, Amy, Rocky, and some other girl who I never got her name). We had some sort of soup/noodle/beef/fried rice meal which was very good. I don’t think Anne understands that I like spicy food though, because she ordered not spicy for me and her, and the rest of the table got theirs spicy. I’ll have to work on that, hah.
Side note, my school is not well-off apparently, and Ryan likes to make that known to me, and it makes me feel really awkward. I don’t think he’s trying to make me feel bad or make me feel obligated to do more/other things, but he’s reminded me at least 3 times now that these kids are low on the social ladder and don’t have much money.
After lunch, just hang out on my computer, show Anne pictures, put together a slideshow for tomorrow…
Meet other EPIK people at 6:30 at lotte mart
Jo’s friend takes us to a cool Korean restaurant in some alley-way, can’t get Stephen there…
Hang out with Stephen.
I put in laundry before heading out for a bit, and when I got back, I saw where some blue of I think my bluejeans bleed into some of my favorite shirts. I was about to shit my pants, but then I decided to remove everything that was blue in the laundry, and run the clothes through just water again. Genius idea! The blue was gone from the shirts, and all was right with the world. I really want to find a person to do my laundry for me though, because I hate not having a dryer and I don’t want to have to worry about clothes bleeding and other shit because I’m not used to Korean washing machines. Ehhh…
Monday August 31st:
I set my alarm for 6:30 am, knowing that I should be out the door by the latest 8 am. I don’t get out of bed until 6:45, then I stumble around for a bit. I forget that I have to turn on the water heater in order to have hot water in the shower, so I push that button as soon as I remembered that needed to be done, hah. I guess I always took having hot water for granted. Never again.
I take a shower in my Korean-style bathroom, shave (of course), then decided to wear just khakis and my carolina-blue dress shirt and red and blue tie. I definitely felt like I was dressing the part of a teacher. I gather everything together that I thought I’d need for the first day of class, head out of my apartment a little before 8, stop at 7-11 to grab my starbucks double-shot espresso, and then walk underground. The underground mall at bupyeong is literally just one huge maze, and I have absolutely no idea how people know where exactly they’re walking to. Luckily, I just have to follow signs that say “subway”, but of course I chose to turn at the wrong “subway” sign, hah. Instead of turning at the Seoul subway line, I turned at the Incheon one, and then I wonder around a bit and I realize I’m not in the spot I need to be at. I then ask one of the employees, “Seoul?”, and he points me in the right direction, thank god.
I wait for like 5 minutes before the train comes, I hop in with the hundreds of other Koreans heading to work, and just listen to my music. Luckily, my school is only one stop away, which translates into like a 3 minute subway ride. Not bad at all. I get off, head to the exit 1, and walk towards my school! Nerves are sky-high by now, because I have no idea what to expect. Of course, I get to school wayyy early (even earlier before my co-teacher got there), so I hang around outside. There, a bunch of Korean students are smiling at me and saying “hi, how are you”…I immediately fall in love with it. I give them all high-fives before heading upstairs to the English classroom to meet my co-teacher, Anne, who has finally arrived by like 8:50.
I meet my other co-teacher Christina (or I think that’s her name!). I think I got lucky having only two co-teachers, because I’ve heard of other people having like 6-8 co-teachers, which would make things much more complicated logistically. Christina’s English is just like Anne’s, very broken and basic, but we can at least communicate on a low-level. Communicating effectively and efficiently is going to be the hardest thing this year I think.
Anyways, Anne then tells me we have to go meet the principal, and I about shat my pants. We walked into his office, and stereotypically it was furnished in the nicest furniture and TVs and pictures. He gets up from his desk, doesn’t really smile at first, I bow and say “anyong ha-seyo”, bow again, and then he sticks out his hand to shake mine. We shake for a good 20 seconds, while just muttering broken Korean/English at each other and smiling. Very awkward moment, haha. Eventually, I think I broke the principal’s tough façade, because he finally starting smiling and laughing with me, and he tried out his English which was nice.
He then went on the school comm system which includes video to every classroom, and proceeded to award certain students for certain things (today was the first day of second semester for Koreans, so it was only a half-day for the students). After a lot of awards, I get a nudge from Anne saying it’s my turn. I walk into the room next to us, and find a fucking camera broadcasting everything to the whole school. I was not prepared for this to be video taped!! So after the principal says “Davis James Hunt” in his Korean accent, I step up to the podium and give my little welcome speech. I could see myself on the screen, and all I remember is me like smiling so much and thinking this can’t really be happening. It was a little surreal.
I somehow end after like 3 minutes of just spewing out words and thank you’s, and everyone is so happy with me. Remember, I’m the first native English teacher this school has had, so they don’t know what to expect from me either. However, I feel like I’m doing a really good job at representing myself, my family, and the US. I’ve made a huge concerted effort at making friends with all my colleagues and getting to know them and show them respect, and I think it’s already paying dividends. I’ve been invited to go into Seoul with Anne, and I think I have an invitation to go to some big temple in Seoul with one other English teacher and her husband.
Anyways, after my speech, Anne and I head back to our English room and we basically do nothing until lunch, no lie. I was invited to go out to lunch with Anne and the 4 other 5th grade teachers (Ryan, Amy, Rocky, and some other girl who I never got her name). We had some sort of soup/noodle/beef/fried rice meal which was very good. I don’t think Anne understands that I like spicy food though, because she ordered not spicy for me and her, and the rest of the table got theirs spicy. I’ll have to work on that, hah.
Side note, my school is not well-off apparently, and Ryan likes to make that known to me, and it makes me feel really awkward. I don’t think he’s trying to make me feel bad or make me feel obligated to do more/other things, but he’s reminded me at least 3 times now that these kids are low on the social ladder and don’t have much money.
After lunch, just hang out on my computer, show Anne pictures, put together a slideshow for tomorrow…
Meet other EPIK people at 6:30 at lotte mart
Jo’s friend takes us to a cool Korean restaurant in some alley-way, can’t get Stephen there…
Hang out with Stephen.
I put in laundry before heading out for a bit, and when I got back, I saw where some blue of I think my bluejeans bleed into some of my favorite shirts. I was about to shit my pants, but then I decided to remove everything that was blue in the laundry, and run the clothes through just water again. Genius idea! The blue was gone from the shirts, and all was right with the world. I really want to find a person to do my laundry for me though, because I hate not having a dryer and I don’t want to have to worry about clothes bleeding and other shit because I’m not used to Korean washing machines. Ehhh…
First full day in Incheon, and it was pretty useless, hah
Sunday August 30th,
Pretty uneventful. Stephen, a girl named Heyin and I grabbed brunch at a food court in the basement of lotte mart. Luckily, Heyin speaks Korean, so she ordered all of us some really tasty and spicy meals. Then, we tried to meet up with some other people to watch a movie, but that became a huge debacle and we ended up playing in an arcade for like an hour or two. Then, we work our way out to the street, where we proceed to do nothing. I just get a little bored with everyone so I decided to walk the 7 minutes back to my apartment and took a nap.
For dinner, I met up with Stephen, Becca (girl from VA), Julian and Del and we all went to Pizza Hut. Yup, we went to Pizza Hut. Unfortunately, the pizza sent my stomach into like a state of shock, and I was only able to eat one piece before I started to feel sick.
After dinner, Stephen and I decide to play some pool, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I played, hah. I think it’s all the hours playing pool on Wii. I knew it’d come in handy some day…I called it a night around 11 or so I think because tomorrow is my first day of class and I want to make a good first impression!
Pretty uneventful. Stephen, a girl named Heyin and I grabbed brunch at a food court in the basement of lotte mart. Luckily, Heyin speaks Korean, so she ordered all of us some really tasty and spicy meals. Then, we tried to meet up with some other people to watch a movie, but that became a huge debacle and we ended up playing in an arcade for like an hour or two. Then, we work our way out to the street, where we proceed to do nothing. I just get a little bored with everyone so I decided to walk the 7 minutes back to my apartment and took a nap.
For dinner, I met up with Stephen, Becca (girl from VA), Julian and Del and we all went to Pizza Hut. Yup, we went to Pizza Hut. Unfortunately, the pizza sent my stomach into like a state of shock, and I was only able to eat one piece before I started to feel sick.
After dinner, Stephen and I decide to play some pool, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I played, hah. I think it’s all the hours playing pool on Wii. I knew it’d come in handy some day…I called it a night around 11 or so I think because tomorrow is my first day of class and I want to make a good first impression!
Goodbye Jeonju, Hello Incheon!
Saturday August 29th,
So after Ryan and Anne drop me off at my apartment after taking me to Lotte Mart and buying some initial things for the apartment, I was overcome with severe home-sickness and a horrible feeling of loneliness. It was not pretty at all. I didn’t know where I was in the city, I didn’t know where any of my friends were in the city, and I didn’t have internet or TV in my apartment. So I crawl into bed at like 8, turn on some music, and try to fall asleep as fast as I could. Of course, when you want to sleep the most, you can’t, and I ended up just laying in bed for a good couple of hours, just miserable.
I wake up the next morning to the early sun and even earlier construction workers. I have the shittiest view in all of Incheon I think. Literally, right outside my one lonely window, are construction workers working on another apartment building. When that building is done, I will have a wonderful view of whoever’s window it may be. Thanks Anne co-teacher for setting me up with such a nice apartment.
I get up, walk to a starbucks, try to use my starbucks gift card, but the employees tell me they only accept the Korean version of the gift card. Are you serious? And of course they have some weird wireless network there (not the same as the ones back home), and neither I nor the employees knew how to connect to it. Great.
I then just walk around a bit and try my luck at a PC Bang that looks somewhat decent. I had never been to one before, so I didn’t know what the proper protocol is. You’re supposed to just grab a card at the front desk that has a code on it, and type that code in at the computer you chose. However, I didn’t know that. So I try talking with the owner, asking if I can just use the internet. He doesn’t know the word “internet” so finally I said “email” and he recognized that. Phew. Thank god for internet, facebook and gmail. It was so nice to get back in touch with people back home because I really needed it big time.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur. All I really know is that I made about 4 different trips to the Lotte Mart to pick up random items that I realized I didn’t have but needed.
Then, by the grace of god (hah), someone sent me a text message saying that some EPIK people were getting together for dinner and drinks. I didn’t think twice about saying yes. We end up going to a Korean bbq restaurant really close to my apartment, and we ordered so much meat and soju and beer that we were all a little drunk by like 7 pm. I’ve learned to really enjoy the local alcoholic drinks here (mainly soju and hite/cass beer). Soju sells for literally 1000 won in grocery stores, which probably means my liver will hate me after this experience. But whatever.
After dinner, we wonder around the general area, and find so many different bars and clubs. We try a few out, keep ordering beer and soju and the like. Funny story though, we end up at Bennigan’s. Seriously?!? Bennigan’s. I couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to say anything because that was the place the majority of the group could settle on. Whatever. I think we call it a night by 12:00
So after Ryan and Anne drop me off at my apartment after taking me to Lotte Mart and buying some initial things for the apartment, I was overcome with severe home-sickness and a horrible feeling of loneliness. It was not pretty at all. I didn’t know where I was in the city, I didn’t know where any of my friends were in the city, and I didn’t have internet or TV in my apartment. So I crawl into bed at like 8, turn on some music, and try to fall asleep as fast as I could. Of course, when you want to sleep the most, you can’t, and I ended up just laying in bed for a good couple of hours, just miserable.
I wake up the next morning to the early sun and even earlier construction workers. I have the shittiest view in all of Incheon I think. Literally, right outside my one lonely window, are construction workers working on another apartment building. When that building is done, I will have a wonderful view of whoever’s window it may be. Thanks Anne co-teacher for setting me up with such a nice apartment.
I get up, walk to a starbucks, try to use my starbucks gift card, but the employees tell me they only accept the Korean version of the gift card. Are you serious? And of course they have some weird wireless network there (not the same as the ones back home), and neither I nor the employees knew how to connect to it. Great.
I then just walk around a bit and try my luck at a PC Bang that looks somewhat decent. I had never been to one before, so I didn’t know what the proper protocol is. You’re supposed to just grab a card at the front desk that has a code on it, and type that code in at the computer you chose. However, I didn’t know that. So I try talking with the owner, asking if I can just use the internet. He doesn’t know the word “internet” so finally I said “email” and he recognized that. Phew. Thank god for internet, facebook and gmail. It was so nice to get back in touch with people back home because I really needed it big time.
The rest of the day is kind of a blur. All I really know is that I made about 4 different trips to the Lotte Mart to pick up random items that I realized I didn’t have but needed.
Then, by the grace of god (hah), someone sent me a text message saying that some EPIK people were getting together for dinner and drinks. I didn’t think twice about saying yes. We end up going to a Korean bbq restaurant really close to my apartment, and we ordered so much meat and soju and beer that we were all a little drunk by like 7 pm. I’ve learned to really enjoy the local alcoholic drinks here (mainly soju and hite/cass beer). Soju sells for literally 1000 won in grocery stores, which probably means my liver will hate me after this experience. But whatever.
After dinner, we wonder around the general area, and find so many different bars and clubs. We try a few out, keep ordering beer and soju and the like. Funny story though, we end up at Bennigan’s. Seriously?!? Bennigan’s. I couldn’t believe it, but I wasn’t going to say anything because that was the place the majority of the group could settle on. Whatever. I think we call it a night by 12:00
Rest of August 20th
· Our Encounter with a Crazed Taxi Driver in downtown Jeonju
August 21:
· No eating after midnight
· Medical checkup at 10 am
o Height ,weight, eye sight, hearing, color blind test, blood pressure (high?), blood, urine (disgusting), xray (bus)
· Class meeting at 2
o Set up bank account!
o Purchased a phone/plan!
§ Details
· 13,000 won basic fee
· 20 won per text message
· 18 won per 10 seconds if call
· Free incoming calls
· Tax is 10% of total bill
· Dinner…
· Watching “Eastbound and Down” with Jessica and Steve, hah.
· Sleep!
August 22:
· LECTURES!
· 4 lectures, each lasting 1.5 hours
o Elementary education
o Teaching listening
o Classroom management
o History/culture
· Nap…
· Our Encounter with a Crazed Taxi Driver in downtown Jeonju
August 21:
· No eating after midnight
· Medical checkup at 10 am
o Height ,weight, eye sight, hearing, color blind test, blood pressure (high?), blood, urine (disgusting), xray (bus)
· Class meeting at 2
o Set up bank account!
o Purchased a phone/plan!
§ Details
· 13,000 won basic fee
· 20 won per text message
· 18 won per 10 seconds if call
· Free incoming calls
· Tax is 10% of total bill
· Dinner…
· Watching “Eastbound and Down” with Jessica and Steve, hah.
· Sleep!
August 22:
· LECTURES!
· 4 lectures, each lasting 1.5 hours
o Elementary education
o Teaching listening
o Classroom management
o History/culture
· Nap…
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